Cars line up at the Beaver Meadows Entrance Station of Rocky Mountain National Park on Oct. 12 to enter the park for the first time since the start of the federal budget impasse last fall. Western governors made a deal with federal officials to open a few national parks in the West for 10 days.

More than 70 percent of the town’s general fund budget comes from sales-tax revenue related to the park, Pinkham said.

Colorado was one of six states that funded park operations during the federal shutdown, paying $202,000 to keep Rocky Mountain National Park open for five days. According to the shutdown report, 16,569 visitors spent about $1 million during that period.

The report, issued on Monday, showed almost 283 million visitors spent $14.7 billion in communities surrounding the nation’s 401 national parks and monuments, spurring a $26.7 billion economic impact in 2012.

“Parks are great investments in local communities,” Interior Secretary Sally Jewell said at a news conference announcing the economic-impact report.

During the shutdown, 7.9 million fewer people visited national parks, triggering a loss of $414 million in spending. The report compared October visitor trends from 2010 through 2012 to assess shutdown losses.

The “silver lining” of the shutdown, Jewell said, is that “communities realize just how much benefit they get from having those national parks open.”

However, with annual funding not matching the rising costs of operating national parks, Jewell said the National Park Service is facing an $11 billion backlog of deferred maintenance.

She urged residents in communities that are dependent upon national parks to lobby their federal representatives for additional funding.

“It is my job as secretary of the Interior to make the case with the White House and Capitol Hill to show the importance of national parks to our economy,” Jewell said. “But it’s also the job of local people to make the case.”

Estes Park’s Pinkham said his town will bear that burden. “Just because the park opened up again does not mean we are going to stop talking about this,” he said. “We are going to be on the front lines.”

Eastbound lanes of Interstate 70 were closed Saturday afternoon at Georgetown due to a semitrailer fire, the Colorado Department of Transportation tweeted. The right lane remains closed, while the other lanes have since reopened. Drivers can expect heavy delays, transportation officials said. The fire initially closed both sides of the interstate as smoked crossed the highway. The load on the...